Bioethics and Disability

Bioethics and Disability provides tools for understanding the concerns, fears and biases that have convinced some people with disabilities that the health care setting is a dangerous place and some bioethicists that disability activists have nothing to offer bioethics. It wrestles with the charge that bioethics as a discipline devalues the lives of persons with disabilities, arguing that reconciling the competing concerns of the disability community and the autonomy-based approach of mainstream bioethics is not only possible, but essential for a bioethics committed to facilitating good medical decision making and promoting respect for all persons, regardless of ability. Through in-depth case studies involving newborns, children and adults with disabilities, it proposes a new model for medical decision making that is both sensitive to and sensible about the fact of disability in medical cases. Alicia Ouellette, Albany Law School Features • A one-stop shop for anyone interested in bioethics, disabilities studies and law, drawing on and synthesizing all three fields • The case study format is easily accessible and engaging, and the book is meticulously researched and documented, making it a valuable resource for research • The substance works on many levels, making the book appropriate for both novices and experts in healthcare, bioethics and disability studies Table of Contents 1. The struggle: disability rights versus bioethics 2. Clashing perspectives and a call for reconciliation 3. Infancy 4. Childhood 5. The reproductive years 6. Adulthood 7. The end of life 8. Toward a disability-conscious bioethics.